Sunrise, January 1, 2012
01/01/2012
11/19/2011
Temples
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I’ve just started a kickstarter project titled Redlegs to help fund a trip to Charleston S.C. to continue my photography and writing work on the Plantations project. There are some good rewards for your support if the project is successful. Check it out here if you get a chance.
Redlegs Plantation Project
or
www.kickstarter.com/projects/1322320805/redlegs-0
11/17/2011
Kickstarter Project “Redlegs”
I’ve just started a kickstarter project titled Redlegs to help fund a trip to Charleston S.C. to continue my photography and writing work on the Plantations project. There are some good rewards for your support if the project is successful. Check it out here if you get a chance.
Redlegs Plantation Project
or
www.kickstarter.com/projects/1322320805/redlegs-0
The goal is to raise money to help offset travel costs, and to do some on the ground research for the writing portion of the project. It’s a unique project for me because it combines my photography with my fictional writing for the first time. So please help support this kickstarter project, you will get some nice rewards if it is successful.
Redlegs
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11/06/2011
10/22/2011
07/13/2011
06/19/2011
Landscape – Old Strip Mine with New Housing
Landscape - Old Strip Mine with New Housing
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05/08/2011
03/05/2011
Plantation Ruins – St. John
More photographs of the plantations can be seen here. http://www.oboylephoto.com/plantations/
St. John USVI, plantation ruins
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02/06/2011
buried here
We are buried in snow here in Western MA, more snow than we have had in the last 5 years combined. At least it feels that way. I have 8mm movies of when I was a kid, jumping off 6 foot high drifts. Drifts as high as the top of my swing set. That’s the kind of snow we have this year. Just add some wind and drifting. I have an ongoing battle with the local town snow plow. I live across from a street which requires the plow to make a 3 point turn. Each time he backs into my driveway to make the turn. Except that he misses my driveway, and knocks several cubic yards of snow and ice chunks from the snowbank into my driveway, before proceeding on his way. So I’m out there again, sweating in the cold, sore back, flinging snow on top of a pile that is 7 feet high, and growing daily.
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11/05/2010
09/24/2010
The Walk from Work
I live 1 mile from my workplace. I walk most days, so the scenery along the way is familiar. I thought I would take some snapshots on the way home today to see if anything stuck. It looks more interesting in the photos than it does on the ground.
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06/09/2010
Tahawus Mine
These are some photographs from one of my favorite projects – the Tahawus Mine in the High Peaks regions of New York’s Adirondack mountains. The High Peaks are also one of my favorite places for hiking and camping, which I did for years before discovering the Tahawus mine ruins. The mine ruins were located on what was the town of Tahawus. The town was relocated south to Newcomb in order for the mine to expand operations. The entire photo essay can be found here http://www.oboylephoto.com/mine/index.htm The mine buildings were razed a few years ago, but the landscape still tells the story of the past.
Tahawus Mine
Tahawus Mine
Tahawus Mine
Tahawus Mine
Tahawus Mine
Tahawus Mine
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05/27/2010
Hoosac Tunnel East Portal
East Portal Hoosic Tunnel
Another visit to the Hoosac Tunnel east portal in Florida MA this past weekend. On this visit the tunnel had less diesel smoke from passing trains, so I was able to get a better photograph.
I was photographing the ruins of the nearby compressor building. The compressor building, while there isn’t much left to look at now, converted water power into compressed air to power drills used during construction of the tunnel. Previous to this drilling for setting explosives was done by hand.
The infrastructure that was required for the construction of the compressor building was significant, requiring daming the Deerfield River and constructing a long canal to provide the turbines with water to drive the compressors. In the end the water supply proved to be unreliable, so the compressors were converted to steam power.
I included some photographs from Jerry Kelley’s website, where he has a great overview of the history of the construction of the Hoosac Tunnel.
Compressor Building
Compressor Building
Compressor Building in ruin - date unknown
Go here to see Jerry’s pages on the compressor and canal.
http://www.jkrails.net/Compressor.htm
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05/17/2010
Plymouth Belvedere
One of the great things about heading out with your camera is finding the unexpected. I was hiking by a river, scouting for another project, when I stumbled upon this abandoned Plymouth Belvedere. I think it is a 1954 Belvedere, but not certain of that. It is quite well preserved, considering it had been sitting here for uncounted years. The doors were locked, windows shut. I’ll be following up with a revisit to this beautiful old car.
05/12/2010
05/11/2010
Lens
A moment in time is up at the New York Times Lens blog. This project captures a moment on May 2nd at 11am (east coast time) all around the world.
I’m still digging through the thousands of photographs to see if my shot made the cut, under nature and environment. It is worth a look.
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05/09/2010
Cocktails and Bowling
cocktails and bowling
Does it get any better than cocktails and bowling?
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05/05/2010
Pittsfield, MA
Night photographs of this post-industrial city near where I grew up. I shot these in 2002-2003 with a hand held 3-megapixel point & shoot camera. I like the sketchy nature of the images, almost like drawings. I’m interested in the old neighborhoods near the industrial area, in the true heart of the city. More from this series linked here.
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05/04/2010
Sunday shoots
Silo's
I’m working on a photography project, and am finding that early Sunday mornings are a great time to get out and take photographs. It’s quiet, people are sleeping in, and the streets are empty. Taking photographs outside in public view tends to draw a lot of attention. Especially if you are photographing something unusual, like a factory, an old house, or a railroad bridge. Everyone wants to know what I am up to, if I am some sort of threat. So I like shooting on Sunday mornings because it offers me some space to work in. This photograph is of a pair of silo’s found along an old rail line. These are relics of when that line was a big influence on the industrial development along its route. Now it’s very lightly used, and these ruins stand as memories to that industrial past.
05/01/2010
It Means So Much to Keep in Touch
Telephone Directory
Old things interest me, they are evocative, they have a rich visual language. Most of my work is about old things – buildings, objects, even landscapes. Why give so much attention to old things? It is what interests me, I’m drawn to it. Even after photographing this subject for over 20 years, I still find it interesting. It is a combined interest in archaeology, local history and the visual pleasure of aged surfaces. Memory plays an important role in this work. Also just being curious about my surrounding and what I see – wanting to connect the dots. Objects, and even buildings, seen as artifacts, are much different than having experienced them when they were in use. When function leaves these things, they become something different. Symbols, representative of something else, evoking another time and reality. They are rich, these old places and things, visually, historically. They are curiosities.
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04/28/2010
Deer Lake Drive-in
Deer Lake Drive-in
After seeing Carl Weese’s beautiful shot of the Pike Drive-in, I went digging for some of my drive-in photographs. This is from Deer Lake PA, an area where I photographed extensively for my Anthracite Region essay. I find this area of Pennsylvania to be fascinating, it preserves something that has been lost in many areas. It is a coal mining region, so until recently the economy in these areas has been flat, with high enemployment. Not much development - and that is what interests me. It’s like traveling in a time warp when in the area, the towns and patches (small clusters of houses), haven’t changed much in 50 years. The area preserves a unique architecture and I will be posting on that soon.
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03/20/2010
Annaberg Plantation Ruins
On a recent trip to the USVI, I discovered some interesting – although dark – history. Large sugar and cotton plantations existed in the 1700\’s and 1800\’s on what was then the Danish West Indies. Some of those plantation ruins are still there today, hidden in the thick jungle overgrowth. These were slave holding plantations, most of the labor was provided by slaves brought directly from Accra to the slave market on St Thomas. There were several slave rebellions that were severly repressed, mutiny\’s, mass slave suicides, and many escapes to the British islands across the channel. I intend to explore what little literature there is of this period of the West Indies to get a better sense of what life was like on these plantations. There are some interesting stories here, two kings from the rival Aquambo and Adampes tribes ended up as slaves on the same island. They met in personal combat to avenge their honor, and in the end joined forces to organize a revolt against the plantation owners and took over the island for 6 months. More to follow.
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